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Americans are facing vastly different inflation rates depending on where they live in the U.S., with the Northeast becoming a hotbed for stubborn price growth.
The Labor Department reported earlier in July that the consumer price index, a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost, dropped 0.1% in June from the previous month. Prices remain up 3% from the same time last year.
But the pace of inflation is much faster in certain parts of the country.
Inflation tightened its grip in New England last month, with the region – which includes Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island – reporting that prices soared 3.8% in June.
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A view of a grocery store in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14, 2024. (Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Image / Getty Images)
Consumer prices in the mid-Atlantic also rose faster than inflation did nationwide last month. In the region that encompasses New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware, prices also rose 3.8%.
The spike is even worse in certain cities: New York, for instance, recorded the highest inflation rate among large cities, with prices up 4.2% last month. Philadelphia also saw a larger-than-average increase at 3.6%.
Other cities are also experiencing inflation that's well above the national average. Prices were up 3.8% in Seattle, 3.5% in Miami and 3.4% in both St. Louis and Detroit.
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By comparison, prices in the Mountain Region – Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana – were far lower, climbing 2.3% in June from a year ago. That is noticeably lower than the national average.
While inflation has fallen considerably from a peak of 9.1% notched during June 2022, it remains well above the Federal Reserve's 2% goal. On top of that, prices are up a stunning 19.4% since January 2021, before the inflation crisis began.
High inflation has created severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. Grocery prices are up more than 21% from the start of 2021, while shelter costs are up 18.37%, according to Gxstocks calculations. Energy prices, meanwhile, are up 38.4%.
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Price hikes are particularly devastating for lower-income Americans because they tend to spend more of their already-stretched paycheck on necessities and therefore have less flexibility to save money.
The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation. Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago.
